Drug addiction affecting children in Malaysia as young as 10: DPM Zahid

PUTRAJAYA – Drug addiction is now claiming as victims children as young as 10 in primary schools, revealed Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Zahid Hamidi.

Datuk Seri Zahid expressed deep concern about this serious threat, highlighting a particularly sinister tactic employed by dealers who offer free sweets laced with drugs to entice young children.

“I have discussed this matter with the Education Ministry and pre-school institutions to curb this problem.

“Tackling this issue requires the collective effort of teachers, parents and the entire community,” he said in a recent exclusive interview with Bernama.

Dr Zahid, who chairs the Cabinet Committee on Eradication of Drugs, said various initiatives were being implemented to tackle the larger-scale issue, including learning better methods to combat trafficking, alongside prevention and rehabilitation efforts.

Enforcement agencies like the National Anti-Drugs Agency (AADK) must adopt more creative approaches, particularly in detecting drug smuggling and monitoring new trends such as the use of delivery services.

“Sometimes the packages are disguised to look like an ordinary online purchase, but they contain drugs. They are highly creative in this regard, and I believe our enforcement and rehabilitation agencies have to be even more imaginative than them,” he said.

Dr Zahid said drug abuse in Malaysia was a cross-racial issue, with the highest addiction rates in Kelantan, Terengganu, Perlis and Kedah.

“In the realm of drug crimes, it is a ‘truly Malaysian’ problem. The major traffickers are Chinese, the organised distributors are Indian, and the retail-level dealers are Malay,” he added.

He said the situation has reached a critical level, with a 32.5 per cent increase in addicts recorded in 2024 compared with the previous year.

The statistics show a sharp rise from 436 addicts per 100,000 people in 2023 to 586 in 2024.

For 2025 up to June, the figure stands at 396 addicts per 100,000 people.

To ensure accountability in enforcement, rehabilitation and prevention, Dr Zahid said AADK was developing a strategic plan for 2026-2030, driven by annual key performance indicators set by the Home Ministry and guided by the Strategic Plan 2020-2025.

He outlined several minimum indicators to measure the success of the war on drugs, such as the Anti-Drug Index, which recorded a score of 68.3 per cent based on a 2024 study by Universiti Teknologi Malaysia.

“Other key benchmarks are client recovery rates, number of recovered individuals who gained employment, level of public awareness measured by the Community Empowerment Recovery Index, and cooperation with government departments, community leaders and NGOs,” he added.

He also shared his previous experience serving as home minister, during which the national prison population was successfully reduced from 78,000 to 42,000 through the implementation of retraining programmes within prisons.

“I do not believe prisons should be solely for punishment, but rather correctional centres. We trained inmates in economic activities, successfully generating RM35 million (S$10.7 million) in sales revenue. More importantly, the recidivism rate was slashed from 48 per cent to just 2.6 per cent.

“That experience shows that we can effectively address drug and related crime issues through creativity, skills training and economic opportunities,” he said. THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK